Flanders, Belgium to host The World’s 50 Best Restaurant awards in 2020

Following last month’s conclusion of its widely celebrated 18th awards edition in Singapore, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants announces that its 2020 awards ceremony will be held in Flanders, the Flemish-speaking northern region of Belgium. The host region will feature a series of events that will culminate with the highly anticipated awards ceremony in the City of Antwerp, where the annual list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, will be announced.

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2020 events programme will draw high-calibre chefs, restaurateurs, discerning food lovers and aspirational travellers from all over the world in celebration of the prolific achievements of a diverse group of international chefs and restaurants. Staged with the support of EventFlanders, Flanders’ major event agency, and the City of Antwerp, the 50 Best programme will include a series of side events – including its thought-leadership #50BestTalks discussion – some of which will be open to the public.

William Drew, Director of Content for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants says: “After a very successful edition in Singapore this year, we are very excited to bring The World’s 50 Best Restaurants back to Europe in 2020 and specifically to the gastronomic region of Flanders in Belgium. The area boasts high quality produce, excellent restaurants and discerning palates. We look forward to bringing the global food community together again next year and helping many to discover this European culinary hotspot.”

The region’s cuisine may be best known for its world famous frieten – Flemish for fries – however, it is also home to a high concentration of top-level restaurants, as well as numerous ingredients and products from vegetables and seafood to beer, pastries and chocolates.

Three restaurants from Flanders have just been recognised amongst the world’s best in the 2019 rankings: Peter Goossens’ Hof van Cleve in Kruishoutem re-entered the 50 Best list at No.43, having risen 20 places. Meanwhile the extended list of restaurants ranked from 51-120 revealed Nick Bril’s The Jane in Antwerp at No. 99 and Kobe Desramault’s Chambre Séparée in Ghent as a new entry at No.111. Belgium also lays claim to an emerging culinary scene with young innovative chefs breathing new life into centuries old traditions.
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Ben Weyts, Flemish Minister of Tourism, says: “Attracting major events like The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards reinforces and increases the international image of Flanders. The Oscars of gastronomy are followed all over the world and will give Flanders broad international visibility and appeal. In the same week that The World’s 50 Best Restaurants is staged in Antwerp, the UNWTO World Forum on Food Gastronomy will be hosted in Bruges. It will be a festive week, where we will show the world that in Flanders you can enjoy great food on every table and on every counter.”

The event programme will be centred around the historic cultural city of Antwerp, famous for its art and architecture, as well as fashion, design and jewellery. Koen Kennis, Antwerp's Alderman for Tourism, says: “In our city, an enormous number of master chefs work in a small area. We are proud of chefs like Seppe Nobels or Nick Bril who, just like Antwerp, are atypical in their work. There is also plenty of emerging talent. We will immerse the visiting 50 Best chefs and international media in a historic setting with gastronomy at a global level – and we will undoubtedly see some of them afterwards, because Antwerp always whets one's appetite for more.”

50 Best will use its prominent platform to be a force for positive change in the culinary world, supported by the high-profile figures whose restaurants now form the Best of the Best group of former No.1s. 50 Best continues to focus on sustainability and creating opportunities for aspiring chefs through initiatives such as the Sustainable Restaurant Award and the 50 Best BBVA Scholarship, and to champion diversity through placing female role models centre stage. Its #50BestTalks thought-leadership event series and digital content will highlight innovation, best practice and humanitarianism in the global gastronomic sphere.